Eat Me.

Anything you can do we can do vegan.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Chocolate Chip Cookie Love

Hello everyone! I wanted to have a little chat about chocolate chip cookies. Some chocolate chip cookies are good and some are just bad. Like the way your mom made chocolate chip cookies was always the best and then you would go over to your friends house and their cookies were just a little off. Same is true for vegan chocolate chip cookies. Some are just not right.

Take for example the vegan chocolate chip cookie sold to us at the Crescent City Farmer's Market. I was trying to break the cookie in half by holding half in my teeth and pulling up with my fingers and it was so dense and hard and dry it abruptly snapped in half and put a bleeding gash in my gum. This is an example of a not right chocolate chip cookie.

So my job after this cookie experience was to make my own cookies and share them with you because for starters they are just as good if not better than any chocolate chip cookie with eggs and uber-refined sugar and second they will not cause bodily injury when eating. (Plus whole foods changed their chocolate chip recipe to not include milk products so I can now get chocolate chips for less than $7.99 a pound.)

Basically the recipe is the one found on the tollhouse bag that I have had memorized since I was 12. For the past year and a half I have played with it adding and subtracting to get results ranging from no-sugar no-fat hippie cookies to cookies identical to the non-vegan version.


Chocolate Chip Cookies

You Will Need:

1 Cup Earth Balance Buttery Spread (Using a high quality butter substitute is key)
3/4 Cup Evaporated Cane Juice
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Medium Ripe Banana (Yellow with many brown spots)
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
2-1/4 Cup Unbleached All-Purpose Flower
1 Bag Vegan Chocolate Chips


Method:

If done correctly you can make these cookies using one bowl, one measuring cup (3/4 c) and one measuring spoon (1/2 tsp).

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two cookie sheets with a light spray of pam or a bit of Earth Balance and spread around pan with paper towel.

In large mixing bowl cream together evaporated cane juice and Earth Balance. Add banana, brown sugar, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Now add the flour 3/4 cup at a time. Dough should be firm but not dry. When that is mixed in well stir in chocolate chips by hand.

With a spoon drop balls of dough onto greased cookie sheets. Chocolate chips will not stick well in dough so you must either ball them up in the dough or place rogue chips back in ball. About 16 cookies should fit on a sheet. Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes until lightly browned on top. Cool cookies on sheet for about 4 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Cookies will be soft when first removed from oven but harden as they cool.

Cookies freeze well and taste fantastic after thawing for two to three minutes.

Makes 28-36 3" cookies.


Variations:

Use variations one at a time or all together.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies: Add 2 cups rolled oats. Only use 2 cups flour.
No-fat cookies: Exchange 1 cup butter for 1 cup unsweetened organic apple sauce. After dropping cookies on sheet press into cookie shape. (Without fat cookies will not spread as they bake.) Substitute raisins or cranberries for chocolate chips.
Less-Sugar Cookies: Use about half sugar suggested. Add additional flour as needed to make dough correct consistency.
Whole Wheat Cookies: Use whole wheat flour instead of unbleached flour.
Spice Chocolate Chip Cookie: Add 1 tsp cinnamon. Not really a spice cookie but it adds a certain depth to the flavor.

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